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HomePosts Tagged "Bayer" (Page 3)
Agrotech, Company News, Environment, North America, Sustainability

Provide the growers with the tools and knowledge to maximize yield and minimize environmental impact.

Tavant, Silicon Valley’s leading digital products and solutions company, announced a strategic partnership with Bayer, a global leader in agriculture solutions, to introduce innovative AgriTech solutions that will empower organizations to drive innovation and growers to optimize crop yields, reduce expenses, and minimize their environmental footprint.

“By developing pioneering solutions for transforming the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, Tavant is poised to drive the agriculture industry forward and provide growers with the tools they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving market.”

“Innovation in digital agriculture is critical for achieving sustainable farming practices and ensuring adequate food supply. Data is often fragmented and challenging to access throughout the supply chain and developing digital solutions from scratch can be costly, but we are arriving at a very exciting moment in modern agriculture,” said Ines Kapphan, VP of Data & Cloud Solutions, Climate and Digital Farming, Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “Our work with Tavant provides innovators with readymade capabilities, so they can join Bayer and many other impactful companies in solving some of the world’s biggest challenges in agriculture.”

“Tavant is a strong proponent of innovation and digitalization in achieving sustainable yields and disrupting the farm to fork value chain. Over the past two decades, Tavant has invested significantly in developing sustainable and efficient farming practices. As a strategic system integrator for Bayer, Tavant is committed to helping growers achieve more with less and providing them with the tools and knowledge necessary to grow crops sustainably while enhancing their profitability,” said Vikas Khosla, Chief Revenue Officer, Hitech, Tavant.

“By developing pioneering solutions for transforming the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, Tavant is poised to drive the agriculture industry forward and provide growers with the tools they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving market,” continued Khosla.

Provide the growers with the tools and

Company News, Sustainability, Vegetables, World

Luna Pro is a premium premix fungicide that provides both foliar and soilborne disease control in potatoes

Bayer announces Luna Pro fungicide. Luna Pro is a premium premix fungicide that provides both foliar and soilborne disease control in potatoes. The newest addition to the Bayer potato portfolio utilises prothioconazole, a DMI foliar fungicide, and fluopyram, an SDHI fungicide. DMIs work by hindering the growth of certain fungi on a cellular level, which helps to improve overall plant health and increase yield potential. Luna Pro is the first DMI-containing foliar fungicide offered by Bayer for potatoes.

The combination of two proven active ingredients, fluopyram (FRAC group 7) and prothioconazole (FRAC group 3) offers a strong defence against early blight, white mould and other key potato diseases. The addition of prothioconazole provides a second mode of action with rotational flexibility and increased resistance management. Luna Pro utilises a combination of systemic active ingredients that provides protection throughout the plant helping growers deliver excellent crops to market.

“Luna Pro is a powerful potato fungicide that helps growers fight against problematic diseases that threaten their yield potential,” says Ryan Allen, U.S. Product Manager – Fruit and Vegetable Fungicides and Biologics for Bayer. “We’re excited to add Luna Pro to the highly effective 75-Day IPM portfolio offered by Bayer as a new solution for potato growers.”

Luna Pro is a premium premix fungicide

Agrotech, Company News, India, IT, Sustainability

The new platform provides best-in-class digital infrastructure and ready-to-use agri-related capabilities from Bayer and breaks down data silos

Sonata Software, a leading Modernisation and Digital Engineering company has announced that it has been chosen as one of the TOP SI partners of the newly launched cloud solution developed by Bayer for the agri-food industry. With the required skills to implement the new cloud solution combined with its long-standing relationship with Microsoft, domain expertise and capabilities in data modernisation, Sonata Software is well-poised to accelerate its ability to bring new value and deliver outcomes-based, digitally enabled solutions to Agri customers globally. 

The one-of-a-kind B2B platform offers a cloud-based infrastructure and ready-to-use digital capabilities, available for businesses and organisations from start-ups to global enterprises to license and build on for their own internal or customer-facing digital solutions. It connects agricultural data and services, makes them accessible and drives traceability along the whole food production value chain.

The new platform provides best-in-class digital infrastructure and ready-to-use agri-related capabilities from Bayer and breaks down data silos. The platform supports an ecosystem where grocery producers can track sustainability data for agricultural produce, including the data in their digital processes and reporting and pass it on to their retail partners. This end-to-end traceability enables consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions based on origin. It thus has the potential to support sustainable agriculture and food production, ultimately benefiting companies, farmers, consumers and the planet.

The solution will benefit farmers seeking to track carbon emission and capture, track disease, pest and weed pressure, apply precision inputs, identify crop growth and production patterns, measure potential yield, and analyse heat stress impact, rainfall, hail and weather data.

“We are excited to be the Global SI partner for this Agri-Solution. Through our deep technical knowledge and long-standing experience in the agri-food industry, Sonata is well-positioned to help customers leverage the benefits of a one-of-a-kind B2B platform. We look forward to enabling businesses to drive greater efficiency and sustainability in their operations, ultimately benefiting the entire food production value chain,” said Rajsekhar Datta Roy, CTO, of Sonata Software.

“At Bayer, we are committed to addressing the global challenges of food security, and we believe technology can play a critical role in achieving this goal. The industry’s new cloud-based enterprise solutions, developed in partnership with Microsoft, harness the power of AI and analytics to enable more sustainable and efficient agriculture, accelerate speed to value for industry innovators, and provide farmers with better solutions and more options to connect with food and ag value chains,” said Ines Kapphan, VP Data & Cloud Solutions, Climate and Digital Farming, Bayer’s Crop Science Division.

The new platform provides best-in-class digital infrastructure

Agrotech, Company News, North America

Bayer and Microsoft provide ready-to-use capabilities available for businesses and organizations to license and use for their own internal or customer-facing digital solutions.

Following a 2021 strategic partnership announcement with Microsoft, Bayer launched new cloud-based solutions for the agri-food industry: AgPowered Services from Bayer in combination with the new Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture provide ready-to-use capabilities available for businesses and organizations from start-ups to global enterprises to license and use for their own internal or customer-facing digital solutions.

For example, companies that develop on-farm technologies can build on the new cloud infrastructure and core capabilities from Microsoft (Azure Data Manager for Agriculture) and license additional capabilities from Bayer (Bayer AgPowered Services) to build digital tools that support favorable agronomic outcomes for growers. Similarly, consumer goods companies can use the cloud offerings to build solutions that provide insight into nutrients, sustainability, and production practices to build trust with consumers, stakeholders and investors.

Azure Data Manager for Agriculture combines decades of Bayer’s agricultural expertise with Microsoft’s cloud solutions, advancing the industry through readymade capabilities and robust infrastructure that allow innovators to focus on differentiated value. After initial preview starting today allowing for customer exploration of both the Azure Data Manager and AgPowered Services, full commercial availability will be announced at a later date.

“Only innovation can ensure global food security while protecting the planet. Modern agriculture and food production generate a tremendous amount of valuable data that can drive productivity and sustainability,” said Dr Robert Reiter, Head of R&D for Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “However, this data is often disconnected, not useable throughout the value chain, and the costs to build digital solutions from scratch are high. Our new cloud-based solutions help overcome these challenges. Customers can use the infrastructure and capabilities to build their own digital solutions and products on top of the most robust collection of ag data in the world.”

These cloud offerings also support an ecosystem that allows for greater transparency along the whole food production value chain. This transparency, enabled through end-to-end interoperability, would make it easier for consumer goods companies to partner with growers based on how crops are raised and help consumers make more informed purchasing decisions based on origin practices. The potential to support sustainable agriculture and food production can ultimately benefit companies, farmers, consumers, and the planet.

Solutions built on Azure Data Manager can benefit farmers seeking to track disease, pest and weed pressure, apply precision inputs, identify crop growth and production patterns, measure potential yield, track and capture carbon emissions, and analyze heat stress impact, rainfall, hail and weather data. In addition to bringing the first AgPowered Services to the cloud offering, Bayer is using capabilities from Azure Data Manager to power insights in FieldView.

Using these cloud-based enterprise solutions, value chain partners will be able to apply insights into supply projections, sustainable sourcing, and ESG reporting. They will also be able to meet quickly changing consumer preferences for fresh, high-quality ingredients with data driven insights that allow for optimization of harvest, transport, and ripening processes as well as advanced traceability of food ingredients.

“This is an important step towards accelerating the impact of big data and agriculture. With high-quality data fueling insights, we expect to see a value chain that is more predictable, more transparent, and importantly, where value is shared all the way back to producers,” said Jeremy Williams, Head of Climate and Digital Farming at Bayer’s Crop Science Division.

Bayer and Microsoft provide ready-to-use capabilities available

Company News, Foodgrains, Sustainability, World

The Nutrient Gap Initiative aims to improve access to essential nutrients for 50 million people by 2030

Bayer announces the expansion of one of its signature sustainability programs, the Nutrient Gap Initiative, to now improve access to both nutritious food and safety net supplementation.  The program initially aimed to expand access to essential vitamins and minerals to 50 million people in underserved communities by 2030, with a focus on nutritional supplementation, a critical tool to build a safety net for malnutrition in these communities. On the occasion of the initiative’s second anniversary, the company is evolving the program to also help close the nutrient gap through the most fundamental source: food, namely fruits, vegetables and grains. 

“As a global leader in both agriculture and nutritional supplements, Bayer is uniquely positioned to help all people get access to proper nutrition. The roots of malnutrition are complex and far from one-size-fits-all, so we’re drawing on competencies from across our company to fight it. We want to remove the barriers to a healthy diet for those who need it most,” said Heiko Schipper, President of the Consumer Health Division of Bayer AG and Member of the Board of Management.

“For people in underserved communities, access to nutritious food is a challenge due to the cost and local availability of fresh produce and grains. As part of our critical work for food security and smallholder farmers, The Nutrient Gap Initiative will help improve the livelihoods of people who do not have access to vitamins and minerals, leveraging also our Better Life Farming Centres,” said Rodrigo Santos, President of the Crop Science Division of Bayer AG and Member of the Board of Management. 

Smallholder farmers are the backbone of many food systems, but their communities are often suffering from malnutrition and a lack of health services. Building on the existing strong infrastructure of the Better Life Farming centres, smallholder farmers will become a key audience for The Nutrient Gap Initiative. The Better Life Farming Centres, predominantly in Asia Pacific, provide smallholders in remote rural regions access to essential agricultural products, a key pillar of Bayer’s Smallholder Initiative which aims to impact 100 million smallholders in low-and-middle-income countries by 2030. Bayer will pilot the expansion of services offered with access to nutritional solutions and education given that food security cannot be achieved without health equity.

The Nutrient Gap Initiative aims to improve

Agrotech, Company News, India, Supply Chain

Partnership aims to provide Indian farmers with access to premium products and solutions via a unified platform.

Bayer, a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of agriculture and healthcare, has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with WayCool, one of India’s largest Food and Agritech companies, as a strategic partner to deliver end-to-end holistic solutions to smallholder farmers in India. The strategic collaboration aims to provide Indian farmers with access to premium products and solutions via a unified platform and personalized advice, with the goal of establishing and implementing a sustainable crop production model. Through Bayer’s Better Life Farming Centers and Farmer Producer Organisations, smallholder farmers will be able to access timely crop advisory, transfer of good agricultural practices and WayCool’s full stack services.

The collaboration between Bayer and WayCool aims to expand their network of farmer partners and facilitate the establishment and implementation of a sustainable crop production model. By providing customized services at the Better Life Farming Centers, the partnership will bring economic benefits to all stakeholders and enable farmers to achieve optimal price realization of their output. It represents a strategic alliance to create a sustainable and prosperous future for farmers in India.

Bayer and WayCool have identified three key focus areas to support the farming community in India through their strategic collaboration. The first is a phydigital platform that offers one-stop solutions, the second is the economic benefits derived from the Food Value Chain partnership, and the third is the use of Bayer’s Better Life Farming Centers and Farmer Producer Organisations. WayCool’s farmer engagement business arm, “Outgrow,” will leverage a digital application to provide farmers with solutions and services, while the on-ground network will be mobilized through WayCool’s Outgrow Network Partners across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, as well as Bayer’s Better Life Farming Centers across the country. Further, WayCool will provide market linkages to help smallholder farmers get better prices for their produce.

Speaking on the partnership, Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, Country Divisional Head – Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, said, “Digitization of the complete value chain is a key enabler of advancing agriculture in India and a primary goal of the Crop Science Division at Bayer. To be able to offer these services to an expanded smallholder farmer base across the country and delivering greater value to them through a capable partner like WayCool will only bring us a step closer to this critical objective.”

Commenting on the MoU, Sanjay Dasari, Co-founder, WayCool, said, “As India progresses towards climate-smart agriculture, and achieving food security, the problem of rising temperatures and pest infestation is a significant challenge for farmers today in crop cultivation. This often leads to a loss in yield and productivity. Recognizing this pain point, we are extremely happy to partner with Bayer and aid the Indian farming community in this fight. Together we hope to support the creation of efficient and climate resistant food ecosystems, in line with our vision to transform the food-supply chain from farm to fork.”

Partnership aims to provide Indian farmers with

Agrotech, Biostimulants, Company News, Europe

Kimitec becomes a new strategic partner for Bayer, combining their unique biologicals discovery capabilities with Bayer’s global field-testing resources.

Bayer and Kimitec announced a new strategic partnership focused on accelerating the development and commercialization of biological crop protection solutions and biostimulants. As part of a global agreement, both companies will become key partners to advance and establish biological solutions derived from natural sources: crop protection products that address pests, diseases and weeds, as well as biostimulants to promote plant growth.

Kimitec operates the MAAVi Innovation Center, Europe’s largest biotechnological innovation hub with 15 years of experience in the research and discovery of natural molecules and compounds for agriculture and food sectors, to provide farmers and growers with all types of natural agricultural products. By leveraging Bayer’s unparalleled product development expertise with Kimitec’s proven discovery capabilities, biological product development will be accelerated to build integrated crop management solutions that can scale and develop through Bayer’s global infrastructure backbone. This includes field testing, product support and commercialization.

“Bayer is committed to providing growers with the benefits of biological solutions as part of an integrated crop management system backed by our leading traits, crop protection products and digital tools,” said Dr. Robert Reiter, Head of R&D for Bayer’s Crop Science division. “

With this agreement, Kimitec becomes a key partner for the acceleration of Bayer’s pipeline of Biologicals. As a world leader in biologicals R&D, Kimitec’s MAAVi Innovation Center will provide its expertise and its unique disruptive technology, including AI as an enabler of faster time-to-results. This will fuel Bayer’s ability to market the next generation of biological solutions.

“Our work with Kimitec offers a unique accelerated path to innovative biological solutions that will help us deliver on our shared vision for a new generation of effective, safe, and sustainable solutions derived from nature,” said Benoit Hartmann, Head of Biologics for Bayer’s Crop Science division. “Being able to partner with Kimitec is exactly how Bayer is going to leverage the open innovation ecosystem to work with our different strategic partners and bring the next generation of biologicals to growers.”

The biologicals market is expected to grow to nearly €25 billion by 2028, as consumers’ demand for low- and no-residue food products, and retailer food sourcing standards drive growers to look for new innovations in crop protection.

Kimitec becomes a new strategic partner for

Agro Universities, Company News, India, R&D

Bayer’s Medha programme will support 125 research scholars through monthly financial assistance of Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000

 Bayer in collaboration with Bhubaneshwar City Knowledge Innovation Cluster Foundation (BCKIC), an initiative by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, has launched a unique fellowship programme ‘Medha’, exclusively for students from the economically weaker sections. Under this fellowship, Bayer will support 125 research scholars in the field of agriculture and life sciences. The initiative will provide monthly financial assistance of Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000 to Master’s and Ph.D. students for a period of 2-3 years, respectively. In line with Bayer’s commitment to bridging the education finance gap, the company has pledged ₹100 million to support researchers in the field of Life-Sciences.

The Medha fellowship combines annual financial assistance with the opportunity of receiving mentorship under Bayer’s employees as well as industry experts. The students will also get an opportunity to visit Bayer’s research labs and interact with industry experts, to gain exposure and build their knowledge base. The fellowship will be provided for two years to the master’s students and three years to the Ph.D. students. The target of the fellowship is to enable the fellows to achieve their short and long-term academic and professional goals. The fellowship programme is being implemented through Bayer Foundation India.

‘Medha’ seeks to benefit students from lower-income families, who are facing financial constraints to fund their education. To encourage applications from women students and students with disabilities, Medha provides 60 per cent reservation for women candidates and an additional 10% reservation for persons with disabilities (PWD). Students enrolled in 1st year Master’s/Ph.D. can apply for the fellowship.

D Narain, President, Bayer South Asia, and Global Head of Smallholder Farming said, “As India increasingly becomes a knowledge and innovation hub for the rest of the world, we are thrilled to be supporting the future of young scholars who are shaping our tomorrow through impactful research in the areas of Life Sciences. At Bayer, we are committed to supporting education, research, and innovation, and providing inclusive opportunities for all sections of society. Through ‘Medha’ fellowships, we are extending our support towards students from economically weaker sections and women scholars, encouraging and supporting them to play an active part in nation-building.”

“India is seeing several Industries support Research and Innovation. Bayer’s opportunity for researchers and academicians is an example of an unconditional focus on development of high-quality scientific human resources. This enables the best brains to learn today and contribute tomorrow to Nation’s social impact”, said Dr Sapna Poti, Director Strategic Alliances, office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India.

Bayer’s Medha programme will support 125 research

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, R&D

Oerth’s unique PROTAC® protein degradation technology is expected to be a new, game-changing generation of more sustainable crop protection products.

Bayer and the agricultural biotech company Oerth Bio announced a new collaboration seeking to develop the next generation of more sustainable crop protection products. The unique protein degradation technology used by Oerth Bio has the potential to generate products that support Bayer’s sustainability objective to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, via lower application rates and favorable safety profiles.

Oerth Bio was founded in 2019 by Bayer’s impact investment arm, Leaps by Bayer, and Arvinas (NASDAQ: ARVN), a clinical-stage biotechnology company leading the way in the development of targeted protein degradation therapeutics. Initially developed to fight human diseases like cancer and other difficult to treat diseases, Oerth’s patented PROTAC® (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera) protein degradation technology provides an innovative pathway to entirely novel crop protection and climate resilient farm solutions. Oerth Bio remains the first and only company researching agricultural PROTAC® solutions.

“The world’s farmers need dependable and sustainable solutions to crop protection challenges, and PROTAC protein degradation technologies show an increasingly promising path toward a new way to develop tailored technologies,” said Dr. Robert Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “We expect protein degradation technology, already used in medicine, to be an important cornerstone for the development of new crop protection products that reduce the impact on the environment significantly. Oerth Bio’s work has proven to be promising, and we are looking forward to what the next phase of our work together will bring.”

Oerth Bio’s targeted protein degraders offer the capacity for high-precision product development, low application rates, and paths to overcome biological resistance. Oerth molecules are designed to interact with only one target protein, and safeguard off-target/beneficial organisms. These attributes combine to offer a very attractive pathway for the development of novel crop protection products that are sustainable, and highly effective. PROTAC® molecules activate a specific naturally occurring process within target species. The impact is expected to be precise and limited to interrupting the specific targeted processes in weeds, diseases or insects that impact crops negatively.

“This collaboration further emboldens our ambitions for first-in-the-world farm centric protein degrader solutions,” said John Dombrosky, Oerth Bio CEO.

Oerth’s unique PROTAC® protein degradation technology is

Company News, Environment, Sustainability

Bayer receives the highest CDP score for its activities and transparency in climate change

Bayer has been recognized for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change by global environmental non-profit CDP, securing a place on its annual ‘A List’. Bayer receives the highest CDP score for its activities and transparency in climate change. This rating confirms the company’s high commitment to sustainability. A record-breaking 18,700 companies disclosed data on environmental impacts, risks, and opportunities through CDP’s platform / 3.4 percent of companies scored on climate received an A (globally). Bayer, committed to net-zero by 2050, continues to reduce scope 1,2 & 3 own emissions and along the value chain following SBTi’s guidelines and supports decarbonization of agriculture through a 2.5-billion-euro innovation budget in crop science.

Bayer also appeared in the CDP “Forest” and “Water Scarcity” rankings. In “Forest” Bayer achieved a respectable “B” status while scoring an “A-” in “Water Scarcity”. A record number of companies participated in this year’s CDP ranking.

Based on data reported through CDP’s 2022 Climate Change questionnaire, Bayer is one of a small number of companies that achieved an ‘A’ – out of nearly 15,000 companies scored. Bayer has held its leadership position for half a decade and has never scored below an A- since first submitting a CDP climate change questionnaire in 2010. This year, 3.4 percent of companies scored on climate received an A rating.

Matthias Berninger, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Science, Sustainability & HSE at Bayer, said: “Bayer’s excellent track record of CDP ratings in the past few years and the latest result validate the company’s high commitment to sustainability. The maintenance of a CDP A-rating for our work and transparency around climate change is an important acknowledgment of our ongoing position as a world-leading company in this field. CDP holds us to account for reporting on our ambitious efforts in decarbonization and demonstrates that reporting requirements recently proposed by several governments are attainable.”

CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. In 2022, over 680 investors with over 130 trillion U.S. dollars in assets and 280 major purchasers with 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars in procurement spend requested companies to disclose data on environmental impacts, risks and opportunities through CDP’s platform. A record-breaking 18,700 companies responded.

Bayer receives the highest CDP score

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, R&D

 SynTech considers this as an opportunity to offer its customers a complete package of services in Europe

Changing expectations and the transformation of the agriculture industry has driven Bayer to adapt to support farmers and agriculture as a whole. Bayer’s strategy focuses on long-term developments, technology trends and customer expectations. In line with this strategy, Bayer has announced its intention to divest the Lyon residue laboratory to an external partner, such activities being very commonly outsourced for many players in the agricultural sector.

The residue laboratory employs 15 permanent and two fixed-term employees. This team is in charge of quantifying residues of crop protection products in agricultural commodities and in toxicological studies.

SynTech Research Group is a leading global agricultural contract research, product positioning, development, registration, and market support services provider. It has over 600 experienced scientists and managers, working from a network of experimental field stations, laboratories and regulatory service locations in over 40 countries. Its rapidly expanding business provides services globally to agrochemical, bio-solutions and seeds and traits customers, based on its strengths in science, agronomy, regulatory and market experience.

SynTech Research Group considers this acquisition to be an opportunity to develop and complete its service offering for residue analysis and to offer its customers a complete package of services in Europe. Already present in USA and Brazil for residue analysis, SynTech Research Group aims to become the world leader in this activity. Through this acquisition, the Lyon laboratory holds the potential to become the European regional center of excellence for “Product Safety Services”.

Bayer thus sees SynTech Research Group as a solid potential acquirer of the Lyon Residue Analysis Laboratory. Confident in the expertise of the divested business, Bayer would become a privileged partner through the establishment of long-term collaboration contracts.

The process would take approximately six months. Over the next months, Bayer will discuss the terms of the offer with SynTech Research Group and consult with the workers councils. If these steps are successfully completed, Bayer would sign a definitive agreement with SynTech Research Group. The sale would be expected to become effective June 1, 2023, providing all necessary regulatory approvals and closing conditions are satisfied.

From the date of sale, Bayer is committed to set up post-closing agreements that would maintain operational processes and business continuity of activities. Until closing, the laboratory would continue to operate as part of Bayer, with no impact on its activities. As always, Bayer is committed to supporting the concerned employees through the upcoming changes in a spirit of fairness and consideration for all.

Due to confidentiality agreements, Bayer and SynTech Research Group cannot divulge any further details about the process.

 SynTech considers this as an opportunity

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, Start ups

Targenomix to continue its startup approach as a standalone entity wholly-owned by Bayer

Bayer has announced the acquisition of German biotech start-up Targenomix. The spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI MPP) uses novel systems biology and computational life science tools to identify new modes of action for crop protection compounds.

The Targenomix expertise, personnel, and platforms will be an important part of delivering on Bayer’s commitment to the design of safe and effective molecules and will accelerate the discovery and development of molecules with the potential to make agricultural production more sustainable despite dynamic challenges like climate change, and increasing weed, disease and insect resistance.

Targenomix, a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, will contribute to Bayer’s Crop Science R&D pipeline by continuing to deliver novel systems biology approaches for innovative crop protection discovery. Targenomix will continue its startup approach as a standalone entity wholly-owned by Bayer.

Dr Robert Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division said, “By using a unique and holistic systems biology approach and leveraging leading expertise building on a strong scientific foundation stemming from the MPI MPP, Targenomix has delivered numerous novel targets and modes of action for small molecules in weed control. Their innovative tools to identify and select safe and sustainable compounds complement our design-based strategy in crop protection discovery and will accelerate the development of new products that farmers need to meet future challenges of agriculture.”

By further integrating Targenomix’ systems biology approach into Bayer’s established R&D pipeline, Bayer is driving the development of innovative new technologies towards safe and effective products that farmers need. “Combining Bayer’s leading capabilities and proven crop protection pipeline with Targenomix’ flexible startup mindset, deep multi-omics technology, and systems biology expertise will allow us jointly to continue to deliver novel modes of action,” said Dr Sebastian Klie, CEO of Targenomix.

Targenomix to continue its startup approach

Company News, Europe, Sustainability

Green Deal to focus on sustainable food security

Bayer has announced the official kick-off of the LifeHub Monheim, a future partnership-focused facility located on the campus of Bayer’s global Crop Science Division headquarters in Monheim, Germany.

As the newest addition to Bayer’s global LifeHub network, LifeHub Monheim will bring together innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists from all over Europe to share knowledge, experience and resources that will help enable sustainable food security for the world’s growing population.

LifeHub Monheim will work with leading innovators from the European open innovation ecosystem, providing expertise and resources for partners of all sizes.

“Building a community of innovators starts by bringing people together, and that’s what LifeHub Monheim is all about,” said Axel Trautwein, Head of Regulatory Science at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “From decision makers and financial resources to scientists, the Bayer LifeHubs around the world make connections and pair resources and expertise with those that need them. We’re excited to be showing so clearly our commitment to the growing innovation ecosystem of Germany and can’t wait to see what we discover together.”

Green Deal to focus on sustainable food

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, R&D

Targeting development of biological solutions in nitrogen optimisation, carbon sequestration and next gen crop protection

Bayer announced that the company has closed the previously announced transaction with Ginkgo Bioworks to begin a multi-year strategic partnership to accelerate research and development of biological products for agriculture. The transaction includes the divestment of Bayer’s West Sacramento Biologics Research & Development site, and its internal discovery and lead optimisation platform.

With the close of this transaction, the Biologics business which is part of Bayer’s Crop Science Division, will also be able to further engage the open innovation ecosystem and build upon its leading position as partner of choice for innovators and scientists around the world.

Joyn Bio, the joint venture created by Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks in 2017, will be integrated into Ginkgo Bioworks to enable the continued advancement of Joyn Bio’s innovative nitrogen fixation platform. As part of the agreement, Bayer retains the right to commercialize the technology to complement synthetic fertilizer use in the coming years. Bayer is now the first major partner of Ginkgo Bioworks expanded agricultural biologicals platform, entering into a new collaboration focused on important programs in the areas of crop protection, nitrogen fixation, and carbon sequestration to identify next generation biologicals that provide clear benefits to growers.

“Biological solutions play a critical role in the agricultural innovation ecosystem, and we see tremendous opportunity for these products to add even more value for agriculture in the future,” said Dr Robert Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “The open innovation approach will accelerate the product pipeline and will make sure that we bring high-quality biological solutions and innovative technologies to the market faster.”

Ginkgo Bioworks aims to develop and advance agricultural microbial solutions across crops and geographies through broad, fully-enabled technical platforms that address diverse market needs. Ginkgo Bioworks will work independently with different partners in the discovery of microbial derived products for agriculture.

“Ginkgo is committed to harnessing the power of programmable biology to enable sustainable food production and food security worldwide,” said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. “We look forward to partnering with Bayer and other innovative companies, and to bringing more applications on to Ginkgo’s expanded agricultural biologicals platform so that growers worldwide can develop breakthrough products.”

Targeting development of biological solutions in nitrogen